VeriFone Systems (PAY) Stock Upgraded Today at Barclays

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY) was upgraded to "overweight" from "equal weight" at Barclays on Wednesday.

The firm said it raised its rating on the secure electronic payment solutions company as it believes the company's fourth quarter results and its double digit organic revenue guidance suggest strong tailwinds.

Shares of VeriFone are higher by 2.65% to $35.25 at the start of trading today.

"We also believe that recent petroleum deals and the larger addressable market from EMV provide the potential to transform VeriFone's model well above expectations," Barclays said.

Barclays raised its price target on VeriFone to $47 from $36.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates VERIFONE SYSTEMS INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate VERIFONE SYSTEMS INC (PAY) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and solid stock price performance. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that we feel that the company's cash flow from its operations has been weak overall."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 6.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 13.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.

The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.85, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.13, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

The company's current return on equity greatly increased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of significant strength within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the IT Services industry and the overall market, VERIFONE SYSTEMS INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.

Net operating cash flow has declined marginally to $51.68 million or 5.90% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, VERIFONE SYSTEMS INC has marginally lower results.